Birds on Lake Michigan

     Lately we have been having excellent birdwatching on Lake Michigan. Today for example, I was just sitting in the great room reading and I looked up. Out on the lake were some white things; they were pretty distant and I couldn't tell if they were boats or could they be large white birds? Grabbed the binoculars and then ran for the Swarovski spotting scope. Indeed, they were birds! Very large birds! Four mute swans all in a line. They paddled from just off our point northward, pausing here and there to preen. Two even seemed to be napping at times with head tucked under their wings. They paddled north until they were out of sight. Four together. They must be unmated 2 or 3 year old birds. Right now mated pairs would be still raising their young which after 35 days of incubation, are hatched, but do not fly for 120 days. So the mated pair would still be very busy indeed.

     Several days ago I saw the female eagle fly along the lake bluff with a large fish in its talens. My grandson asked what kind of fish it was. I don't know, I told him, but it looked like a very good lunch for the two eaglets in the nest.
     When my grandson was recently here we made regular trips to my bluebird house. Low and behold the pair in the back nest box have already fledged the first set of offspring and are working on their second for the season. The first night I looked with grandson Sam there were four sky blue eggs in the nest. The next day when we looked there was a freshly hatched baby bird. And the third day that we looked all four had hatched. I looked the day after my family left and the four babies already had black fuzz on their backs. Wow, they grow fast. Grandson Sam enjoyed making trips to the lake bluff to look for the eagle and to see the baby bluebirds and other birds we could see from the bluff top -- swallows, gulls, and a great blue heron.